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Without A Mirror Or Another Person, I Can’t See My Ears

One of the strengths of the program is that we continue to hear new bits of wisdom at meetings. No matter how long we’ve been in the program, new expressions which we have not heard continue to pop up. This happened at a meeting recently, when a member shared, “without a mirror or another person, I can’t see my ears”. Within this simple aphorism lies two of the main principles of AA, NA and OA. We do a lot of work around taking a fearless moral inventory. For many of us initially, this can be quite challenging. Either we really don’t know ourselves well or are in so much denial that we are unable to get an accurate picture. The only way we can progress is to really look at ourselves closely. We need see what is really there. The reflection needs to be as accurate as the one we see in a mirror. Sometimes, even when we are looking at ourselves, what we see continues to be murky or distorted. This is when we need to turn to our sponsor or a friend in the program for feedback. Even though we might not be able to see ourselves accurately, chances are they will be able to paint a truer picture for us.